The Investment Climate Surveys (ICS) were conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and covered firms of all sizes in many industries. The ICS collected a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face-to-face interviews with managers and owners regarding the investment climate in their country and the productivity of their firms. Topics covered in the ICS included the obstacles to doing business, infrastructure, finance, labor, corruption and regulation, contract enforcement, law and order, innovation and technology, and firm productivity. Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative data helped connect a country’s investment climate characteristics with firm productivity and performance.
Firm-level surveys have been administered since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit (FPDEA). Enterprise Surveys, a replacement for Investment Climate Surveys, are now conducted by the Enterprise Analysis Unit.
Serbia Investment Climate Survey was conducted in May 2003. It covered 408 firms in manufacturing, services, retail/whole sales, agriculture, and construction sectors.
After the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003, the situation in the country deteriorated into a stalemate in Parliament, disintegration of the ruling coalition and collapse of the government. New parliamentary elections took place in December 2003.
The survey was undertaken in the aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister at a time when the country was experiencing a great deal of uncertainty, so the survey results must be viewed in this light.
Kind of Data
Sample survey data [ssd]
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
National
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
Name
World Bank
Funding Agency/Sponsor
Name
World Bank
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
Start
End
2003-05
2003-05
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Data Collectors
Name
Strateški Marketing
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
The current survey instrument is available:
- Investment Climate Survey Questionnaire.
The survey has 11 sections:
1) General information about the firm: ownership, activities, and location;
2) Sales and supplies: imports and exports, supply and demand conditions, and competition;
3) Investment climate constraints: evaluation of general obstacles;
4) Infrastructure and services: power, water, transport, computers, and business services;
5) Finance: sources of finance, terms of finance, financial services, auditing, and land ownership;
6) Labor relations: worker skills, status and training, skill availability, over-employment, unionization, and strikes;
7) Business-government relations: quality of public services, consistency of policy and administration, customs processing, regulatory compliance costs (management time, delays, bribes);
8) Conflict resolution/legal environment: confidence in legal system and resolution of credit disputes;
9) Crime: security costs, cost of crimes, and use and performance of police services;
10) Capacity, innovation, and learning: utilization, new products, planning horizon, sources of technology, worker and management education, and experience;
11) Productivity information: employment level, and balance sheet information (including income, main costs and assets).
Access policy
Contacts
Email
enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org
Confidentiality
Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised.
Access conditions
Firm-level data is available to the public free-of-charge. In order to access the data, users must agree to abide by a strict confidentiality agreement available through Enterprise Analysis Unit website by clicking on "External users register here" at https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/Portal
Citation requirements
Where necessary please site the source as "Enterprise Analysis Unit - World Bank Group https://www.enterprisesurveys.org"
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.